BARON/BARONY
. The Latin baro (pl. barones), probably derived from a Germanic word whose basic
sense was “man as distinct from woman,” was rarely used in documents before ca. 1030
and was almost always used in that sense. In the half-century after 1030, however, baro
appeared with rapidly increasing frequency in diplomatic documents composed in
northern France and its cultural colonies, primarily to designate the principal vassals, or
“men,” of both the princes and the castellans who emerged in the same period. By 1120,
its Old French derivative ber(s) (oblique baron) had come to be used adjectivally to
characterize personages of high rank or honor, including kings, saints, and even Christ.
In the second half of the 12th century, the sociopolitical use of both baro and ber(s)
was regularized and restricted upward. In the language of the royal chancery, the
expression barones regni replaced the traditional proceres regni as the designation of the
leading magnates, who were soon defined as those who held one of a certain set of major
castellanies or still larger dominions in fief immediately of the crown. These dominions,
which included all of the duchies in France and many of the counties and viscounties,
acquired the generic title “barony” (OFr. baronnie etc., Lat. baronia), and baronial fiefs
were said to be held “in” or “by barony.” Within certain of the greater principalities,
themselves baronies of the realm, the more important fiefs, including all dependent
counties and viscounties, were similarly recognized as baronies, and their lords as barons,
of the principality.
Although all dukes, counts, and viscounts were barons on one level or the other, the
title “baron” was applied after 1180 especially to those barons who had no higher title of
dignity—i.e., the more important castellans, of whom there were probably between 300
and 400 in the whole kingdom. In the 13th century, the word “barony” came to be treated
as a specific title, applicable to the name of a simple baron’s principal dominion on the
model of “county” (e.g., la baronnie de Coucy). For some reason, “baron” itself remained
a purely generic title until the 16th century, and simple barons continued to employ a
style of the form N, sire de X, common to all minor lords after ca. 1200. The feminine
title “baroness” (Lat. baronissa, OFr. barnesse) did not appear until ca. 1220, but
thereafter it was increasingly applied as a generic title to the wives, widows, and
heiresses of barons.
D’A.Jonathan D.Boulton
[See also: KNIGHTHOOD; NOBILITY; PEER/PEERAGE]
Boulton, D’A.J.D. Grants of Honor: The Origins of the System of Nobiliary Dignities of
Traditional France, ca. 1100–1515. Forthcoming.
Guilhiermoz, Paul. Essai surl’origine de la noblesse en France au moyen âge. Paris: Picard, 1902.
Westerblad, C.A. Baro et ses derives dans les langues romanes. Uppsala: Almqvist, 1910.
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